


Stop the World and Melt with You

by karrenia_rune



Category: Space Cases (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 18:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11423208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: Miss Davenport pairs up the students for a science project and Harlan and Catalina have to work together, this could end well or it could end in disaster; it depends on how the day is going.  Trouble? Well, it must be Tuesday.





	Stop the World and Melt with You

Disclaimer: Space Cases is the creation of Peter David and Bill Mumy and Nickoloden, as are the characters who appear here or are mentioned. They are not mine and are only ‘borrowed’ for the purposes of the story. 

“Stop the World and Melt with You” by Karrenia

 

Harlan was late to class as usual so when he got there his assigned partner had started without him. She was wearing safety goggles and had her distinctive Saturian rainbow locks tied up with a black bandana. 

Bova and Rosie and Radu came in just then and went over to their own station in the chemistry lab and put on their own set of rubber gloves and safety goggles

"Hey, Catalina!"

"Hey, yourself. Miss D is gonna blow a gasket if you mess this up again," she stated.

Harlan blushed scarlet his fists clenched tightly against the fabric of his uniform slacks and scowled, wondering how it was possible that Catalina still possessed that uncanny knack of knowing just how and when to push his buttons. 

"Hey, that's not fair. It was one, okay, maybe twice, and it wasn't my fault," he replied in a defensive tone of voice.

"Funny, but you do say that a lot," Catalina replied. "Besides, it hardly matters right now, since I need your help with mixing the catalyst, so get over here and hold this beaker."

"Sure, what's our experiment, anyway?"

"Don't rightly know, but Suzee says..." began Catalina.

Bova looked up from the workstation across the way and groaned then looked away again after Catalina irritably glared at him. "Suit yourself," he muttered under his breath, but I'd lay odds that she's just making up this Suzee thing and whenever we've caught her having conversations with this Suzee, it's really just her talking to herself."

Rosie sighed and giggled. "Oh, Come on, Bova. Don't be such a downer. I mean, anything's possible, right? For all, we know Suzee really could be real, from a real alternate dimension."

Radu finished attaching the cables to their atomic clock they'd been working on and fiddled with the knobs on it, leaning down to listen to its steady pulse just in case they needed to make any more tweaks to their experiment before it was time for final evaluations from Miss Davenport, who handled their classroom work and Commander Goddard who oversaw their Star Dog evaluations and training.

All the while, trying and not entirely succeeding in screening out all of the ambient noise in the room, from the conversation of his shipmates,

Which included the constant but steady thrumming of the Christa systems, the hum of the engines, the whoosh of the recycled oxygen, the noise of as chemicals were poured and mixed and pounded into beakers and test tubes; even the beat of everyone else's heartbeat.

This was much more difficult than anyone who was not born an Andromedan realized. It took a great deal of effort not to become bombarded by all the different types of sounds. 

At the same time, he had to agree, he kinda liked the idea of there being another dimension out there, and in the back of his mind, he thought, 'Maybe I should ask Catalina some time about how she's able to tune in to this alt-dimension Suzee.' I wonder if has something to do with her being Saturian. There's so much..."

"Oh, please, don't start in on your imaginary, ah, sorry, invisible friend Suzee, again," Harlan interrupted. "I mean, really, Catalina, I'll admit, the first time you had us all going. I mean, really? Come on, guys, you really don't believe that Suzee's real."

Catalina narrowed her eyes and grimaced. "Harlan Band, so help me. I'll not be dragged into this argument. So, let me make this very clear. Suzee's real, as real as you and I and as real as my need to get a good grade on this science experiment, so think very carefully before you open your big mouth again!"

Everyone else looked up to the other end of the room.

"Cat," Harlan muttered. "I, I," as he held up both hands in the air. "I'm sorry. Really I am."

"I, I sorry, too. Oh, Harlan, I didn't' mean to blow up at you like that. But I meant that I need a good grade, or Miss D is gonna have my hide."

"It's not like any of us are killing it in this class," Bova added. "Well, maybe except for Rosie."

Rosie smiled. "Yeah, well." I do okay."

"So, Harlan if you're done, hold this tube and don't drop it, okay?" Catalina asked.

Harlan smiled. "Sure," but even as he reached for it and his fingers were mere inches from closing around it, the deck heaved underneath his feet.

"What the hell!" Harlan exclaimed. 

Before anyone else could answer another concussive wave brought everyone askew, beakers, measuring cups, test tubes and sundry on their work-stations went tumbling to the floor, scattering glass and broken plastic all over the place. 

Some but not all of the containers burst into flame, but no harm was done there because Christa's automatic systems came on to douse the flames as soon as they erupted.

However, a muffled yelp from Catalina who had ducked behind the desk brought Harlan back to his feet. What he saw brought him up short in surprise, Catalina was covered head to foot in pinkish purple foam.

"What?"

"I don't know. Just get me out of this. But, be careful, it's sticky."

Harlan began to reach for the foam and began to tug at Catalina's arms but the more he tugged the tighter and stickier the foam got. In a weird way, the foam seemed to resist all of his efforts to extract his friend from it.

Before he noticed the pink foam as if it had a will of its own, had expanded and had not grown to cover the tops of his Star Dog regulation boot soles, then up to his shins, his calves, his knees, and finally his waist. "Uhm, Harlan, I think it's no good."

"What's no good," Bova asked, "who now stood at Harlan's left shoulder. 

"Sorry, I couldn't see over all the smoke and fire."

"We're stuck."

"I can see that," Bova replied.

"Well, get us unstuck if you would," Harlan muttered.

"Rosie, Radu, our friends are stuck in some kind of sticky, pick foam; in fact, it kind of reminds of that Old Earth candy that humans love so much, What do you they call it? Oh, yeah, cotton candy."

"What!" Rosie exclaimed as she scrambled up from the ground with Radu's help and they ran over.

"What's going on?" Radu asked.

"They're stuck," Bova reiterated. "And it seems to be growing. If only I had a PADD. I might be able to take some readings, find out what it is and what happens if it continues to grow at its present rate."

The foam in question had now completely covered both Harlan and Catalina and was now creeping towards Bova's boots as well.

"We'd better do something fast," Rosie said.

"I agree," Radu said. "But, there's one thing I don't get. If this was caused by something going, ah, haywire by your experiment; then why is it tyring to ah, envelop us?"

"How should I know!" Harlan yelled. "Just do something.

By this time the foam had now come up to Bova's thighs. "I wonder if it tastes as good as it smells."

"You're not seriously considering eating it!" Catalina exclaimed.

"Why not?" Bova shrugged. "Here let me try something. So saying he bent his forward so that his Uranian antennas were at full extent and sent a jolt of electricity down at the center of the ever-growing foam. 

The foam seemed to flex and contract and shudder at the impact as if it hurt. Then its slow expansion double and even tripled. This time now three of the crew were now covered in the stuff.

"Do it, again! Bova, I don't think it likes heat." Rosie said.

Bova sent another bolt into. 

"Ow, Ow, watch where you aim those things!" Harlan complained, you nearly took off my big toe!"

"Sorry, I can't get a good aim or angle," Bova replied.

"I've got an idea. It is just so crazy, it just might work!"

"What is it?" Radu asked.

"What if we combine our powers. I doesn't like heat, and it got mad when Bova hit it.

"What's the saying? Oh, I catch your wave."

"It's drift, Radu, drift," Harlan sighed. "Andromedans, can't live with them.."

"Shut up, Harlan," Catalina exclaimed. "What you're saying is that we hit the foam with a combination coordinated attack!"

"If we do this and it works, Radu cover your ears and be ready to catch them when the foam spits them out, okay?" Rosie said.

"Ready when you guys are," Radu agreed.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Harlan asked.

"Just hold still," Catalina replied.

"On my mark, she added. "One, two, three." With that she let rip with a focused Saturian scream that would have made the mythical Old Earth creatures known as Banshees proud; following on the heels of her sonic scream, Bova hit it with another electric jolt and Rosie let loose with a blast of heat through her insulated gloves.

The foam shuddered and heaved and then burst outward showering everyone who was not already covered in the stuff with flaky dry pinkish purple particulates that flaked off of their clothes and onto the already messy floor.

The foam spit Catalina out, and Radu was there to catch her, then Harlan, and then, Bova."You guys did it!"

"I can't believe that worked," Catalina said a bit breathlessly.

"What do we do with this stuff?" Bova asked.

"I say we get rid of it," Harlan said.

"We wouldn't be in this mess," Catalina began and she regained her balance and stepped away from Radu to rock slowly back and forth on the balls of her feet. 

"Don't start on the blame game, kay. I get it. I messed up."

"Can we get this on a recording?" Bova asked. Harlan Band actually admitting that he was wrong."

"Shut up, Bova," Harlan muttered. "We still don't know if it's still dangerous."

Bova shrugged fatalistically, got a specimen jar, something resembling a broom and dustpan and began to sweep up the remains of the foam.

"What are you doing?" Rosie exclaimed.

"Getting rid of it. Heat, sound, and electricity got you guys out. It stands to reason that if put the stuff in the incinerator that sound finishes the job. I still think it smells like cotton candy, but it's definitely not edible and it's not candy."

"You're really weird, Bova. You know that?" Rosie laughed. 

"Yeah, I know," he replied with a hint of a smile thinning his mouth and then went over to dispose of the dangerous foam.

Miss Davenport came into the lab figuring that she'd given the students more than enough time to complete their chosen science experiments and it was time to go in and check to see not only how well they did but also how well they worked together; after all, both aspects of the assignment were to be graded on a curve; and both were equally important.

When she arrived she saw the crew cleaning up after what she could only assume was a big mess and no complete science experiments to be seen anywhere in the chemistry lab. In fact when she looked closer all of the students were covered in minute traces of an oddly sweet but cloying particulate.

She put her hands on her hips and demanded of the room at large. "I expressly told all of you to have had your experiments to be completed and ready for grading by 1600 hours today. Well?"

"We had them almost done, Miss Davenport," Harlan began, It's just that ah, sometimes experiments have unexpected results and we ah, had to ditch one of them."

"Mr. Band, I've heard more than my fair share of wild stories from you, but if you expect me to believe that.'' she trailed off.

"No it's true, Miss Davenport," Catalina added.

"Mr. Bova?" she asked.

"Uh Uh, what they said," Bova replied.

" Mr. Radu, Miss Iani, is this true?" she asked.

"It's true," they both affirmed at almost the same time.

"Well, I. I suppose I can't fault you this time, after all, we did experience a heavy amount of turbulence when we passed through the ion storm a half hour ago."

"An ion storm?" Harlan asked. "Why wasn't I called up to the Command Deck."

"Because Commander Goddard wanted you to finish your experiments and because Thelma could handle things up there in the meantime."

"And its' both surprising and refreshing to see you all come together and stand up for one another," she continued. "I shall mention that to Commander Goddard.

"Yeah!" Harlan exclaimed.

"Don't celebrate prematurely. I still want a written report of what happened to your experiments. You have until this time tomorrow."

"Yes Miss D!" came a chorus of voices.

"Very well. It's almost dinner. I shall see all of you in the mess hall. Carry on." With that Miss Davenport turned and went out of the door of the chemistry lab.

"She didn't get as mad as I thought she would," Harlan remarked.

"She still has us writing a report," Bova pointed out.

"All the same I'd say we got off pretty lucky," Rosie agreed.


End file.
